Main Story Summary
Year One The story begins with Soleil walking to Hopeguard Academy, a prestigious hero school run by her aunt, Selene Lupei. At the same time, three other students enroll in the same class, being Nyein Fugax, Viktor Stane, and Benjamin Beaumont. When she arrives, she is greeted by the first-year teacher, Giorno Luciano. After a while, Ben finds out that the villain who slaughtered his own adopted sister has begun to hunt him down. This villain, Coroner, had the ability to decay life. With the help of Orion Riley, Viktor Stane, Parrot, and Vox Silentium, Ben eventually took down the Coroner after weeks of training. Later, Giorno is revealed to be a clone of a villain named Caesar, who is resurrected by Apollo, the leader and creator of Underhaven, a city built to house villains, located deep underground. After a battle with the resurrected Caesar, Giorno begins preparing for battle, and teaching his son, Julius, to protect himself. A student named Vivice entered the school, immediately taking a disliking to Soleil, who she considered an antithesis. Caesar attacked the city later on, declaring himself a messiah, and attempting to wipe Nova city off of the face of the earth, as well as any heroes who dwell within it. He was thwarted by a Vengeance bomb created by the joint efforts of Giorno and Julius Luciano. Vivice soon fights with Soleil in public, causing quite a lot of destruction to the area. Eventually, Soleil and a student named Kigome Gold convinced Vivice to change her ways. Much later, Vivice gives her life to save Nash, Soleil's cousin, from an attacker, a Wyrnid named Exarth. This causes Nash to feel immense guilt. Mere days before the end of the school year, Nash betrays his family and friends, assisting Apollo in order to gain the power to create peace. The story picks up months later, in 2539. Year Two Nash is now the leader of a twelve-person mercenary group known as The Calamities. Several students, including Geerui and Soleil have an encounter with a being known as Colden, who claims to have found a secret so important that evidence of his very existence was wiped from their reality. He implores them to stop this secret, and before he vanished, he tells them to locate Exarth. Geerui and Kigome eventually fought Nash, however, it turned out that Nash was never loyal to Underhaven, only getting close enough to destroy Lich's Phylactery, preventing him from resurrecting. As Lich is the person who resurrects the dead for Underhaven to use, this is a major advantage for the Heroes. Just then, Apollo arrived, wielding an odd weapon known as 'Moralltach', fighting Rythian with it in hand. Rythian and Apollo fought for a while, but eventually, Apollo got the upper hand. However, before he could land the finishing blow, Helios Lupei intercepted with his own blade, Caladbolg. The two fought for a while, but since Apollo was weakened from his fight against Rythian, Helios was easily able to kill him with a technique called "Star of David". Omen arc The council of Underhaven, consisting of Lich, Ares, and Exarth, elect Thanatos as Apollo's replacement. Both heroes and villains begin searching for "Omen weapons", mysterious artifacts that grow alongside the user, and were said to be gifts from Gods. Known Omens at the time were Cerberus, Moralltach and Caladbolg, however, more have surfaced, including Julius' Jormungandr, Lapis' Gungnir, and Luna's Carnwennan. Giorno and Julius are kidnapped by a squad of elite Underhaven soldiers, after two long fights. Giorno is interrogated, and after Thanatos threatens Julius, he reveals that the villainous group's target is in the Garden of Eden. Exarth says that he can bring them there, if given time.